I'm not even gonna bother starting a new thread for Bloodrayne, but the commercials for this thing look awful. Looks like a straight-to-video movie or a syndicated TV show. And Gandhi's in it. Come on, Gandhi, what the fuck?!

When I first saw the trailer, before I saw Ben Kingsley in it, I assumed it was a USA Network Original Movie (I was watching USA when I saw it). Which is weird, because although Uwe Boll's movies are always terrible, at least they usually look like actual theatrical movies.

Billy Zane Says 'BloodRayne' Will Silence Uwe Boll's CriticsDirector has been trashed for past films like 'House of the Dead,' 'Alone in the Dark.'Source: MTV News

This Friday night, like so many before it, you may find yourself and your date standing before an intimidating wall of names at the local megaplex. You might be tempted by the controversial "Brokeback Mountain" or intrigued by the mythical qualities of "Narnia," and you may find yourself staring longingly at the poster for "Underworld: Evolution." But with the latter not due until the end of the month, and the others likely sold out, the infamous Uwe Boll would like to humbly submit "BloodRayne," which offers audiences a bit of all three.

"I totally do want to validate Uwe Boll in the pantheon of the horror genre," "BloodRayne" co-star Billy Zane recently said, defending the vampire flick's director. In the past few years, Boll has become one of the most controversial filmmakers not named Michael Moore (see "Director Uwe Boll Going 'Postal' With Latest Video Game Movie"), gathering bigger stars and grander declarations of geek hatred (UweBollIsAntichrist.com, for instance) while moving from one film ("House of the Dead") to the next ("Alone in the Dark").

"We know that over time the work will speak for itself," insisted Kristanna Loken ("Terminator 3"), the titular heroine of the film. "With that being said, he's a great guy and I'd be happy to continue working for him."

"He has totally made his mark and put his naysayers and critics to rest with this film," Zane continued, adding that Boll's detractors often overlook the indie aesthetic that he has pioneered, creating innovatively financed movies that tap the fanbase of mid-level gaming titles. "The guy's a maverick; the way he directs, the way he funds his own movies, the way he distributed his film ... love him or hate him, he's a true individual, and I dig the guy."

The question is whether audiences will similarly dig "BloodRayne," a hyperactive gorefest that has Boll adapting the video game series of the same name. What remains is the tale of Rayne: a sexy yet lethal Dhampir, born of both human and vampire parents, who wields the power of supernatural beings without any of their weaknesses. It is at this point, however, that the two roads split.

"We decided to make a prequel of it, which opens us up to more sequels, also before the video game," Loken said of the movie, set some 200 years before the game's World War II time period. "In the game they're fighting Nazis, so [with a] German director, I don't think he wanted to do that movie.

"With vampire movies, making them period [pieces] somehow adds to the mystique and the folklore a bit," the actress continued. "We shot in Romania, which is rich with vampire history; we shot in the oldest inhabited medieval village in all of Europe, Sighisoara [Transylvania], which is the town Vlad the Impaler was from. All of the locations you see are not green screen; the Gothic castles are real and stunning. The monasteries, the landscape is beautiful, and all the people aided in creating that mood, that vampire mood. I think rather than making it modern-day, when you throw it back a few hundred years it just becomes a little bit more darker and sexy."

With the director's presence providing the controversy and Romania contributing stunning locations, all "BloodRayne" needed to complete the Boll formula were a few household names and some semblance of a plot.

"It's basically Rayne's coming-of-age story of finding out where she comes from," Loken summed up. "She finds her evil vampire father Kagan (Ben Kingsley) and really wants to get some retribution. She meets these people along the way who point her in various directions (including Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Madsen and Meat Loaf), and she finds different talismans that incorporate different powers that aid her in the ultimate fight with her father. It's a lot of Jekyll and Hyde, and she's also very human, and the fact that she has to feed on blood in order to sustain herself is not palatable to her. So it's a bit ironic; it's tough for her to deal with this place she's stuck in — not quite human and not quite vampire."

According to Zane (cast as vampire diplomat Elrich), such a weighty concept takes the film beyond previous Boll efforts and also places it above the similarly themed "Underworld" franchise. "So many vampire movies today are set in a dark and rainy future, usually in Canada somewhere, and we've armed our vampires with automatic weapons," he said with a mischievous smile. "You're looking at 'Lord of the Rings' on acid. It's massive, and epic, and really twisted."

The bottom line, it seems, is that "BloodRayne" is much like Boll himself: over the top, eager to please and unnervingly secure with its identity. But along with the acceptance of one's place in the universe comes a certain amount of freedom. "This movie pulls no punches," Zane beamed. "It doesn't apologize or go [politically correct]; it's a splatter-fest. You need a raincoat when you go see this movie. ... I've heard responses on the Web with people saying 'It's about time. No studio would ever do that!' "

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Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Director Uwe Boll doesn't get much slack. For better or worse, he doesn't seem to care. When 1UP interviewed the German filmmaker, though, he seemed confident videogame fans would find more to like about his adaptation of Majesco and Terminal Reality's vampiric action series BloodRayne starring Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines actress Kristanna Loken."The first movie I actually really went into the development process was BloodRayne, so I'm curious to see now that I'm almost finished with the movie, to see what the reviews say then or what the people tell me about it then," he said back in August. "I'm quite happy with it, script and everything, and I cannot really say I see a lot of mistakes in that movie right now."

So far, the reviews have not been positive (though Boll seems to openly dispute them). BloodRayne opened this weekend against horror director Eli Roth's much hyped Hostel, and though the weekend hasn't finished out, Box Office Mojo reports BloodRayne didn't even crack the top 10 on Friday, bringing in $450,000 and averaging only $457 per theater, while Hostel walked away with the top spot.

Though the numbers don't bode well for BloodRayne's box office success, we fired off some questions to Boll this week via e-mail asking about the film, and here, completely unedited, are his thoughts. Stay tuned for an interview with Kristanna Loken on Monday.

1UP: Did Majesco approach you about the project first, or did you play the game and suddenly have a "Eureka!" moment? How's it been working with Majesco vs. Sega and Atari?

Uwe Boll: i saw the game and i liked it

1UP: You have also said BloodRayne is the only videogame film you'd want to develop a sequel for. What's so special about the Bloodrayne universe?

UB: i like her character and working with kristanna

1UP: Why are you forgoing critic screenings for BloodRayne?

UB: we have a premiere where the press can come. piracy is also a problem

1UP: What stood out about the casting of Kristanna Loken? In the latest issue of FHM (an American men's magazine), she's quoted on the cover as saying "I love being naked." C'mon, tell us, that must be it.

UB: yes. and she is in the movie naked

1UP: Several times you've mentioned Loken's sexiness as one of her defining traits. Do you consider sexuality an important part of your films?

UB: yes - because VAMPIRES movies are sexy

1UP: In another interview, you mentioned sometimes surviving on apples and chocolate on set. What made shooting BloodRayne so difficult?

UB: bad crews, bad food - great landscapes

1UP: Rayne is a violence-prone product of rape. How did you help Loken identify with that kind of character?

UB: i didnt helped her - i throwed [sic] her in her first scene in a situation where a guy wants to rape

1UP: Though BloodRayne hasn't officially screened for critics, there have been some select showings, one of which prompted a sharply negative review by Ain't It Cool News, a site you previously told 1UP you read. Is that the response you were expecting?

UB: no. HARRY and Quint are retards

1UP: How was Ben Kinglsey on the set? Rumor has it he's always wanted to play a vampire.

UB: super diciplined [sic]. this is true

1UP: It's understandable Meatloaf had fun working with the prostitutes during filming, but how did you even come up with the idea of casting Meatloaf? How did you track him down?

UB: he has LOKENS manager

1UP: Can you talk about how you're splitting up In the Name of the King: Dungeon Siege? Will they act as separate stories ala Lord of the Rings, or more akin to Kill Bill, where you're left hanging?

UB: it will be one 2.30 hours theartrical [sic] movie and a 3 hour DVD version

1UP: You've mentioned in other interviews that your next projects are already financed, but how will the recent change in German tax law affect later projects?

UB: we will see

1UP: Sum up what we should expect from Postal in one sentence.

UB: the biggest desaster [sic] on earth - but not for me - for AMERICA

1UP: Rayne is a violence-prone product of rape. How did you help Loken identify with that kind of character?

UB: i didnt helped her - i throwed [sic] her in her first scene in a situation where a guy wants to rape

this part made me laugh very hard.Has anyone ever played Postal? How the fuck are they going to turn a game thats premise is to kill innocent people at random into a movie? I'm going to love the scenes of him pissing on a corpse he set on fire or the scene of him kicking a severed head around like a football....wait...that would be awesome!!!

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“The myth by no means finds its adequate objectification in the spoken word. The structure of the scenes and the visible imagery reveal a deeper wisdom than the poet himself is able to put into words and concepts” – Friedrich Nietzsche